How to Change Privacy & Safety Settings on Twitter

This guide walks you through Twitter’s privacy and safety settings, showing you how to control who can see your posts, who can interact with you, and how to manage what content you see. You’ll need your Twitter login credentials and access to the account you want to adjust. Changes save instantly and apply across the web, iOS, and Android apps.

What You’ll Need

Your Twitter username and password (or saved login)
Access to the account you want to change (you cannot change another user’s settings)
A web browser or the Twitter app on your phone

Step-by-Step

Log in to Twitter. Go to twitter.com on a browser or open the Twitter app. Enter your credentials and complete any two-factor authentication if enabled.
Open Settings and Privacy. On the web, click the More button (three dots) in the left sidebar, then select Settings and privacy. In the app, tap your profile picture in the top-left corner, then tap Settings and privacy.
Go to Privacy and Safety. In the menu that appears, click or tap Privacy and safety. This is the main hub for all audience and content controls.
Control your audience. Click Audience, media, and tagging. Here you’ll find the Protect your posts toggle. Turn this on to make your tweets visible only to your followers. New followers will need your approval. When protected, your existing tweets are hidden from anyone who doesn’t follow you.
Manage photo tagging. In the same section, set Photo tagging. Choose Anyone can tag you, People you follow can tag you, or No one. This controls who can add your profile to a photo.
Adjust direct messages. Go back to Privacy and safety and click Direct Messages. Toggle Allow message requests from everyone if you want to receive DMs from people you don’t follow. Toggle Filter low-quality messages to hide spam-like requests. You can also check Show read receipts to let senders know you’ve read their message.
Set discoverability options. Click Discoverability and contacts. Uncheck Let people who have your email address find you on Twitter and Let people who have your phone number find you on Twitter to make your account harder to find. Toggle Allow others to upload your contacts to prevent people from matching you via their address book.
Manage content you see. Click Content you see. Here you can toggle Display media that may contain sensitive content on or off. When off, sensitive media is hidden behind a warning. You can also adjust Topics and Interests to control what Twitter shows in your timeline.
Set mute and block preferences. Click Muted to review your muted accounts, words, and notifications. Click Blocked accounts to see and manage your block list. These are manual lists you maintain.
Control notifications. Click Notifications in the left menu. Under Filters, you can choose to mute notifications from people you don’t follow, people who don’t follow you, new accounts, accounts with default profile photos, unverified accounts, or accounts without a confirmed email or phone number. Toggle these based on how strict you want your mentions to be.
Review your data. Click Your data to see what Twitter has collected. You can download an archive of your data here, but this does not change privacy settings.
Save changes. Most toggles save automatically. For any setting with a dropdown menu (like photo tagging), select your choice and click Save changes at the bottom of the section.

Common Mistakes

Forgetting that protected tweets are not retroactive for new followers. When you protect your account, existing followers retain access. You must manually remove followers you no longer trust.
Assuming “sensitive content” hides your tweets. That setting only controls what you see, not what others see of your posts. To hide your own posts, you need to protect your account.
Turning off discoverability but keeping contacts uploaded. If you leave “Allow others to upload your contacts” on, people who already have your number in their phone may still see you as a suggestion.
Changing settings in the app but expecting them to sync immediately on the web. They do sync, but a few seconds of delay is normal. Refresh the page if you don’t see the change.
Overlooking the “Muted words” feature. This is separate from account mutes and is powerful for filtering out spoilers or topics you don’t want to see.

Tips

Use a list instead of muting. If you want to see someone occasionally but not in your main feed, add them to a list and check that list manually.
Review your blocked accounts quarterly. People change, and you might want to unblock someone you had a disagreement with months ago.
Turn on two-factor authentication. While not a privacy setting, it protects your account from being hijacked, which is the ultimate privacy breach. Find it under Settings and privacy > Security and account access > Security.
Use the “Quality filter” in notifications. This automatically hides low-quality content like duplicate or spam replies. It’s a good default to keep on.
Check your “Interests” tab. Twitter uses your interests to target ads and content. Clearing irrelevant interests can improve your timeline and reduce data tracking.

Troubleshooting

Changes not saving. If a toggle flips back, log out and log back in. Clear your browser cache or force-close the app. If it persists, try a different browser or device.
Can’t find the Privacy and Safety menu. On the web, ensure you’re on the full site, not the mobile-reduced view. Click the More button (three dots) in the left navigation. In the app, the menu is under your profile icon.
Protected tweets still showing publicly. Wait a few minutes. Twitter’s servers take time to propagate the change. If it persists, log out of all sessions via Security and account access > Apps and sessions, then log back in.
Notification filters not working. The filters apply to new notifications only, not ones already in your inbox. Also, check that you haven’t accidentally muted the specific account directly.
Someone can still find you via email. If you turned off email discoverability, it takes up to 48 hours for Twitter to remove you from their lookup index. In the meantime, they may still see you if they search.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does protecting my tweets hide my likes and retweets?

No. Your likes and retweets are still visible to the public unless your account is protected. However, if your account is protected, only your followers can see your likes and retweets.

Can I block someone without them knowing?

Twitter does not notify the person when you block them. They will simply see that they can no longer follow you or view your tweets when logged in.

Will changing my settings affect my old tweets?

Yes. Protecting your account immediately hides all your past tweets from non-followers. Changing notification filters or mute settings only affects future activity.

How do I stop Twitter from using my data for ads?

Go to Privacy and safety > Ads preferences. Here you can turn off Personalize ads and Personalize based on your inferred identity. This limits, but does not fully eliminate, ad targeting.

What’s the difference between muting and blocking?

Muting removes their tweets from your timeline and notifications, but they can still follow you, see your tweets, and DM you. Blocking prevents them from following you, seeing your tweets, or sending you messages.

Can I make my old tweets disappear automatically?

Twitter does not have an auto-delete feature for old tweets. You must delete them manually or use a third-party service that connects to your account to bulk-delete, which carries some risk. Your safest option is to protect your account so old tweets are hidden from the public.

General steps for current mainstream versions; menus can differ by device and version. See the disclaimer or report an error.

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